Three giant lever arch files filled with 50 years of recipes!!
Never mind the dozens of recipe books on the kitchen shelf...
Catalogued Heck no, just a hotch potch of precious familiar, heart tugging recipes, some torn from magazines, some hand written (they were the most poignant), some neatly typed on yellowing newsprint that we used in seventies and eighties.
'Margaux's Rusks', neatly handwritten in her familiar flamboyant style, my darling Margaux died several years ago and I miss her daily. 'Annette's Pate' hurriedly written and covered in pate drool after many years of happy cooking. Annette Bowes has also passed, but is remembered well in the community every time we need an excellent pate.
'Jenny's Health Loaf' was next, also well worn, contributed by Jenny Woodgush who left Zimbabwe when it was still Rhodesia, but her Health Loaf lingers on.
'Midge's Fudge' legendary in the Turk Mine District, Midge Joubert left the Country several years ago, and now has two grandchildren in KZN!
Jeannie ! Loads of glorious recipes from Jeannie Pritchard, now resident in York, one day I will be able to cook just like Jeannie!!
'Judi Appleby's Baked Fish' has always been a welcome addition to any dinner party, again Judi has left us and is happily living in the UK.
'Laura Hardy's Mayonnaise' still a great favourite made with just oil, eggs, lemon juice and mustard powder! It's the technique that counts!! Laura now lives in France..
'Peter Knott's Bread' and 'Flora's Eley's Strawberry Mousse' are among the few recipes I have from friends still resident in Bulawayo.
Perusing through the three files occupied my entire morning as I searched for recipes with which to impress my friends in Chimanimani over the long weekend. At our first gathering in Chimanimani in the eighties, our guest list totalled 167 people, this weekend it has dwindled considerably to just four couples, all of us now great haired and not quite as agile as we were!!
It was a wonderful, enriching, bittersweet, exercise which I miss while we are away from Bulawayo, when its all too easy and impersonal, to find a recipe by consulting Mrs Google!!